Finding Sauce (a lot of tanks in a little time) RSR 250 Nem tank

[Lost in the Sauce]

I built mine out of a 40B. I love it. I traded coral for the glass baffles. Got taught how to cut it by my guy, then built my sump over the course of a few days. If I had to do it again... I may have gone bigger. But the tank is only 60 gallons so a 40B was a good sized sump and it left enough room in the stand to put a 5 gallon glass tank for my ATO.

Wow that's a lot of volume under the tank. What is the footprint of your stand? Does it take up all your room? I'm not opposed to a 40. What I dislike most about this 29 is no room for a refugium, and most of the vertical space is unused. Or does that mean I'm keeping my water level too low? Seems I'm having to top off every three days or the pump starts sucking air.

 

[F i s h y]

Wow that's a lot of volume under the tank. What is the footprint of your stand? Does it take up all your room? I'm not opposed to a 40. What I dislike most about this 29 is no room for a refugium, and most of the vertical space is unused. Or does that mean I'm keeping my water level too low? Seems I'm having to top off every three days or the pump starts sucking air.

Pics in my build thread. I can get you more later. I love the footprint of the 40. The stand still needs some finishing (trim) paint touch up. But I needed to get my stuff moved so I rushed it...

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Wow that's a lot of volume under the tank. What is the footprint of your stand? Does it take up all your room? I'm not opposed to a 40. What I dislike most about this 29 is no room for a refugium, and most of the vertical space is unused. Or does that mean I'm keeping my water level too low? Seems I'm having to top off every three days or the pump starts sucking air.

I like 40b sumps. I build one of 2 ways.

Style 1:
Drain/Skimmer (as small as can be for that section to fit both)
Fuge (as much space as possible)
Return/dosing (as small as possible to fit the pump and dosing lines)

Style 2
Drain and fuge (as large as possible)
Skimmer and return. ( as small as possible to fit everything)

Style 2 typically has a divider in it to where the drain/fuge Flows into the return area and the skimmer just pulls water from what over flows into that area from the return section.

Style 2 is what is in my 180 and it works great for it. Almost to well lol.

Here is the 180 40b sump. Socks are only there, as I had to bring down po4 a tad and was using LC dripped into them to do it. I normally do not run socks. The sump crabs and sump nems usually take care of anything that makes it out of the display.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Pics in my build thread. I can get you more later. I love the footprint of the 40. The stand still needs some finishing (trim) paint touch up. But I needed to get my stuff moved so I rushed it...

I get it fully. Instead of rebuilding the stand I'm on, I'm going to build the frame I want within the existing working, then remove the old frame and build out around it. There's no way I will be able to move the tank stand to stand without a full tear down . Again.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I like 40b sumps. I build one of 2 ways.

Style 1:
Drain/Skimmer (as small as can be for that section to fit both)
Fuge (as much space as possible)
Return/dosing (as small as possible to fit the pump and dosing lines)

Style 2
Drain and fuge (as large as possible)
Skimmer and return. ( as small as possible to fit everything)

Style 2 typically has a divider in it to where the drain/fuge Flows into the return area and the skimmer just pulls water from what over flows into that area from the return section.

Style 2 is what is in my 180 and it works great for it. Almost to well lol.

Here is the 180 40b sump. Socks are only there, as I had to bring down po4 a tad and was using LC dripped into them to do it. I normally do not run socks. The sump crabs and sump nems usually take care of anything that makes it out of the display.

Wow great. I'll be on the lookout for a 40 around me. I really like the large refugium. Too bad it can't double as a qt.

The boss has already put the squash on me saying I need to set up another small tank for a while to quarantine incoming fish and corals. She knows that means it will be another permanent tank in the house...

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Heading out to Home Depot now to get the egg crate in order to set my skimmer height.

Looking in my existing sump led to a question of, what is the right water level in the sump and what determines the correct level? I've been having to top off every 3 days in order to not suck air through the pump. The pump chamber usually runs about half water height as the skimmer chamber. There are two foam pieces within the baffles to kill micro bubbles I believe.
My tank doesn't actually run as high of a water level as I wish it did. There's about a 16th of an inch all around of water line under the top rim. If I add more water to the system, I think it would just run out the overflow faster and raise the water line on the Sump, instead of raising the tank level.

The skimmer side runs about 10 and a half inches water depth in a 29g. Does this sound correct? I wish I could go off of a standing water line on the side of the glass but there's probably 15 different levels represented in the grime. I'd like to figure out the optimal water level before setting my skimmer height.

Thoughts?

 

[sfin52]

it maybe that your pump is set to high or your returns aren't opened enough. If you keep putting fresh water in your salinity may be dropping

Check your salinity.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

it maybe that your pump is set to high or your returns aren't opened enough. If you keep putting fresh water in your salinity may be dropping

Check your salinity.

I've been checking salinity every time I top off. 025 is where it has been pegged to since bringing it home. I am watching that closely

The pump is not variable and while trying to fix the durso siphon issue, I installed a ball valve in the return. Closing the ball even 20% reduced the return flow so much that I couldn't feel much coming out of the return lines returning to the tank. This also did nothing for the siohon. I ended up having to drill a 1/4" hole in the top of the pipe to not allow it to siphon. I don't know if these are related but I wonder if the overflow pipe itself has a bunch of built up crap that is restricting flow out. The overflow cascading water is still really loud. Like can hear it from the bottom of the stairs loud.

Did some search and read and it sounds like setting max water height is done by turning off all flow and letting all water in lines and overflow drain into the sump. Fill the sump to an inch below the top and mark a line. This is the max system off line. Turn everything on to where the levels stabilize and mark a line. This is my system running max water line that an ATO can be set to.

Sounds like I should figure these levels out, then when running, set my skimmer height 6.5-7" below that sections running water line with a platform. Sound right?

 

[fishguy242]

YEP..mark that at the 3 day point..thats your height to top off to,then restart,set skimmer height..

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

some little Earl on a rock. Crazy how darn small they can curl into. None of these were mayb huge to start with, figure better to practice on the smaller ones. New chisel blade cut through the LR quite easily. Positive I didn't hit one with the blade.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

YEP..mark that at the 3 day point..thats your height to top off to,then restart,set skimmer height..

Which level is being marked at the 3 day point?

 

[fishguy242]

great catch..after shut down ,too see what sump can hold safely,THEN start up once running is your mark.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Just had my first daylight bristle worm encounter.. those things are SO disgusting. It was out chillin like he belongs there. Can't wait to put the melanarus in there and watch the games unfold.

 

[danieyella]

Just had my first daylight bristle worm encounter.. those things are SO disgusting. It was out chillin like he belongs there. Can't wait to put the melanarus in there and watch the games unfold.

Arrow crabs are a lot of fun to watch destroy them as well. They walk around the tank with them in their claws munching away.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Arrow crabs are a lot of fun to watch destroy them as well. They walk around the tank with them in their claws munching away.

NOTED. I haven't heard of those. Are they reef safe w starfish, snails, and conches?

I crushed up a small piece of live rock yesterday in order to glue mushrooms too and they were at least five bristle stars in there about the size of a quarter... Ughhh. They nasty too

 

[danieyella]

NOTED. I haven't heard of those. Are they reef safe w starfish, snails, and conches?

I crushed up a small piece of live rock yesterday in order to glue mushrooms too and they were at least five bristle stars in there about the size of a quarter... Ughhh. They nasty too

They may go after some smaller crustaceans if they're feeling hungry, but I never had a significant problem with mine. I feel like about once a year I have to do a cuc restock anyway.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

They may go after some smaller crustaceans if they're feeling hungry, but I never had a significant problem with mine. I feel like about once a year I have to do a cuc restock anyway.

Thanks. I'll have to check them out

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Pretend they aren't ADORABLE. Go on, I'll wait!

What do you call these guys on the sand?

 

[Soren]

Wow great. I'll be on the lookout for a 40 around me. I really like the large refugium. Too bad it can't double as a qt.

The boss has already put the squash on me saying I need to set up another small tank for a while to quarantine incoming fish and corals. She knows that means it will be another permanent tank in the house...

I followed the recommendation for the biggest sump possible and plan to have a 75-gallon sump, mostly for a display macroalgae tank/refugium (maybe with pipefish or mandarins). Since I got a new 75-gallon tank on sale at Petco recently, I still have an old 75-gallon tank left over to make into a QT in my basement. I'm pretty sure the QT will end up being at least a semi-permanent tank, though I may just run my current FOWLR canister filters on it instead of another sump.
...I guess that is one advantage to living alone and owning a house: I make my own rules!

It is certainly easier for me to build with this purpose in mind from the start. I do not want to think about tank transfers other than current FOWLR occupants to my 75-gallon mangrove lagoon once set up (very soon, hopefully).

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I followed the recommendation for the biggest sump possible and plan to have a 75-gallon sump, mostly for a display macroalgae tank/refugium (maybe with pipefish or mandarins). Since I got a new 75-gallon tank on sale at Petco recently, I still have an old 75-gallon tank left over to make into a QT in my basement. I'm pretty sure the QT will end up being at least a semi-permanent tank, though I may just run my current FOWLR canister filters on it instead of another sump.
...I guess that is one advantage to living alone and owning a house: I make my own rules!

It is certainly easier for me to build with this purpose in mind from the start. I do not want to think about tank transfers other than current FOWLR occupants to my 75-gallon mangrove lagoon once set up (very soon, hopefully).

Wow that's going to be great. I need a fuge For my mandarin. It's an earring machine.

The boss pulling the chain every so often is much needed and I've accepted that after 15 years together. If left to my own devices, my imagination would run WILD and without a check, my wallet would be directly affected haha